S10_2Engine out!Battery BoxesBed tilted!Blown Kelly controllerMotor installed.Battery PackFront battery boxFront Battery Box Mounts
OwnerBrian Mathis
Owner's Other EV1997 Chevrolet S-10
LocationNew Berlin, Wisconsin US map
Email email image
Vehicle1994 Chevrolet
MotorNetgain WarP 9 Series Wound DC
9"
DrivetrainGas 2.2 to be replaced with Warp 9"
ControllerCafe Electric Zilla
Kelly KDH4650 until Zilla shows up. The Kelly MUST BE precharged with the 144V (Use resistor) instead of just turning on the ignition and sending 144V to the controller. It will BLOW!!!!!
Batteries24 Trojan T-105, 6.00 Volt, Lead-Acid, Flooded
225 AH each. I had 180V worth of batteries till I shorted 10 together and ruined 6 of them. I'm mounting 18 under the bed. Six under the hood.
System Voltage144 Volts
ChargerManzanita Micro PFC-20B With Buck Enhancer Battery Charger
110V or 220V, multi voltage charger
Heaterceramic 1500 watt
DC/DC ConverterSevcon 45
45 amp Max
Instrumentation0-1000 amp meter
Top Speed77 MPH (123 KPH)
With KELLY 650 Controller- 40 MPH downhill!
With Curtis 500- 77mph!
With Zilla 1000- ????
AccelerationWith Kelly, horrible.
Range60 Miles (96 Kilometers)
50-60 mile range.
Watt Hours/Mile270 Wh/Mile
Last one was 125 amps & 130 V @60mph
EV Miles
Current:15 Miles (24 Kilometers)
 
    As of 11/19/2008
Seating Capacity2 adults
TiresStreet.
Conversion TimeTwo days to remove ICE. About a week to install tilt bed kit, and weld battery boxes under bed... still welding.
Conversion CostAround $10000.00 including truck, tax, title and all. I'll track every penny this time. $6919.00 so far.
Additional FeaturesTiltable bed, Pak-Traker battery monitor system, coil over shocks, air helper springs, I have a separate wattmeter I have reset to zero to monitor every kilowatt going into the truck. Its wired to a 30 amp breaker.

Front aluminum battery box from E-bay user closertowholesale. Built to exact specs, and for a real nice price, $325 shipped!

I was able to reset the odometer to 000000.0!

01 Jul 08- Engine removed.
02 Jul 08- Ordered parts.
15 Jul 08- Bed removed. Bed is tiltable. Batteries underneath.
Jul -waiting on parts
Aug -waiting on parts
Sep -waiting on parts
22 sep 08- Got the air springs, Pak-Traker.
24 Sep 08- All but motor and either controller showed up.
30 Sep 08- Welding battery boxes frame under bed.
4 Oct 08- Welded in left side battery box.
5 Oct 08- Fabricated right side battery box.
8 Oct 08- Installed rear air helper springs.
8 Oct 08- Welded in right side battery box.
11 Oct 08- Tested Pak Traker, worked fine.
12 Oct 08- Installed motor and trans.
14 Oct 08- Fixed throwout bearing, wired truck power, tested motor in 5th gear with a 12V batt, odometer reads 000000.1, more welding in rear.
16 Oct 08- Welded bumper on bed, more to go...
17 Oct 08- Made half of the 2/0 cables.
18 Oct 08- Finished welding on bumper, mounted the brakes air pump.
19 Oct 08- Finished cables, connected charger and Pak-Traker.
20 Oct 08- Pulled bed to move it closer to original position.
21 Oct 08- Re-installed bed and welded hinges, now I can bolt it down.
26 Oct 08- Made a wood battery box for the bed for winter, insulated and heated.
28 Oct 08- put 24 batteries in box in bed. Front battery box showed up! It fits!
29 Oct 08- Fit foam in front battery box, added batteries, cables.
30 Oct 08- Welded mounts for the front battery box, mounted box, main contactor, throttle POT.
2 Nov 08- Started wiring main battery pack. Connected one row of batteries in a loop and killed 6 batteries. Fire, molten lead, sparks....
3 Nov 08- Replaced batteries, finished wiring HV pack.
4 Nov 08- Completed wiring, tested and blew the Kelly controller. Sparks, flames, engine going to who knows what speed,, .6 miles on odometer! Talking to Kelly to see about a fix.
10 Nov 08- Went to Illinios and picked up a new controller. Faster than shipping.
11 Nov 08- Installed new (used) Kelly controller. Will check wiring before running it.
12 Nov 08- Ran it 2 miles using 36V worth of batteries. POT is bad, bought one at Radio Shack. Will shoot for 144V tomorrow.
13 Nov 08- 144V tested good, had to use old POT which was good, bad meter.
14 Nov 08- installed batt charger and dc/dc converter. Wiring them up tomorrow.
15 Nov 08- FINISHED! Sort of... everything is done, took it for a test drive and with the kelly controller (KDH4500B), only got up to 40 MPH, same as the other truck with the earlier version Kelly (KDH4500). Wont go up any sort of a hill in anything other than 1st gear.
16 Nov 08- Blew up the DC/DC converter by using the manzanita battery pack charger and adjusted the "amps" too high. Apparently the AMPS knob also increases the voltage! Ordered new dc/dc converter.
17 Nov 08- Went to Kelly support and swapped the 500 amp for a 650 amp controller
18 Nov 08- Installed new 650 Amp Kelly (KDH4650B), road tested slightly faster than the 500 amp, but not anything I'd try and take on the highway. About 45-50 staright and level.

code by jerry